Nuclear arms race

Cold War nuclear arms race
Part of the Post-WWII era and the Cold War
Left to right, nuclear bomb test Crossroads Baker; a Soviet RT-2PM Topol mobile ICBM; a flying LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM; the mushroom cloud explosion of the test Castle Romeo
Date September 28, 1942 – December 8, 1987 (45 years, 2 months, 1 week and 3 days) Location United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, China, France, India, Pakistan, atmosphere of Earth Result The Soviet Union begins researching nuclear arms in response to the Manhattan Project The United States conducts Operation Crossroads soon after the end of World War II The United States conducts the first full-scale test of a thermonuclear device, Ivy Mike Intercontinental ballistic missiles are developed by both sides The Soviet Union tests the Tsar Bomba thermonuclear bomb The United States and the Soviet Union sign the INF Treaty in 1987
Competitors
Western Bloc (primary parties)  United States  United Kingdom  France Eastern Bloc (primary parties)  Soviet Union (Sino-Soviet split)  China South Asian Arms Race  Pakistan  India
Commanders and leaders
Franklin D. Roosevelt Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard M. Nixon Gerald R. Ford Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan Joseph Stalin Nikita Khrushchev Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov Konstantin Chernenko Mikhail Gorbachev
Major operations
United States: Manhattan Project Operation Crossroads Operation Greenhouse Operation Ivy Operation Castle Operation Plumbob Nike Zeus program PGM-17 Thor program Operation Dominic LGM-30 Minuteman program Strategic Defense Initiative LGM-118 Peacekeeper program  United Kingdom: Operation Hurricane Operation Grapple  France: Gerboise Bleue Canopus  Soviet Union: RDS-1 RDS-4 ("Tatyana") RDS-6s (Joe 4) RDS-37 R-7 Semyorka program K project Tsar Bomba R-14 Chusovaya program Operation Chagan A-35 program R-36 program  China: Project 596 Test No. 6 Test #21  Pakistan: Kirana-I operation Chagai operations  India: Operation Smiling Buddha (Pokhran-I) Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II)
Costs
Est. $5.5 trillion
Near catastrophes
Suez Crisis alarm 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash Yom Kippur War accidental false alarm 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident
Cuban Missile Crisis Able Archer 83

Nuclear weapons
Background
Nuclear explosion History Warfare Design Testing Delivery Yield Effects Winter Workers Ethics Arsenals Arms race Espionage Proliferation Disarmament Terrorism Opposition
Nuclear-armed states
NPT recognized United States Russia United Kingdom France China Others India Israel (undeclared) Pakistan North Korea Former South Africa Belarus Kazakhstan Ukraine
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The nuclear arms race was an arms race competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War. During this same period, in addition to the American and Soviet nuclear stockpiles, other countries developed nuclear weapons, though no other country engaged in warhead production on nearly the same scale as the two superpowers.